Details

Date Published

April 17, 2017

CPU Clock Rate

3.4 GHz

GPU Core Clock Rate

1.12 GHz

GPU Effective Memory Clock Rate

8 GHz

Description

Dec 2017

The ultimate H board is still making me happy. Upgrading to the 7700K from the original i5-7500 gives me a nerd satisfaction that can only be compared to the rush of a completionist discovering easter eggs in Skyrim. Finding the RGB memory was a steal, even if it has to run at 2400. I already had already upgraded the cooler to an EVGA 120mm AIO, so the K chip had no extra cost.

Aplil or May 2017

This build is like a low rider. Plush and highly visible, not actually built for speed. Also, it was an extremely easy build. I have not built a PC since 1996 and was not even thinking about a PC build until my wife wanted a new mouse. One thing leads to another or Micro Center in my case.

I was originally in love with the NZXT S340 Elite I saw at Micro Center. Gamers Nexus thermal testing however changed my mind because my house has crappy heat exposure in the room where this PC will br used. OC3DTV however did an exhaustive review on the 570 and Tom's recommendation for positive air pressure in the case chamber was spot on. I have 5 intakes and only the rear fan exhausting air. Air also flows from the numerous panel gaps.

Gaming was the primary reason to build this machine. Still so many considerations went into the choices of this or that. Giving in to the realities of cost can be hard. I would have preferred the 1070 variant to be sure. The RX 480 was much cheaper given that it was an open box for 190.00 and change.

One month after original build and 2 weeks after RX480 addition and the I5 runs cool.
I may put a Cyrig C1 or C7 for aesthetics but for now, stock cooling for the wind.

Side note to NOOBS like myself. H270 boards usually do no not support RAM above 2400. XMP enabled only allows the EVGA SC 3000 to reach the 2.4 GHz speed.

Cheers,
Stalewind

Part Reviews

CPU

I love it. Dirt Rally comes no where close to full utilization anymore. I had an aesthetic AIO upgrade earlier, and the 120mm EVGA cooler is all the 7700K needs at the stock speeds my board is capable of. I waited until a good deal came my way and am using the old CPU in a less costly build. I can wait till the lakes freeze over now.

CPU Cooler

This AIO is my first liquid cooler. Installation was easy as pie. The hoses look nice with the braid, and the CPU block with its' silver base blends with the motherboard. I think the simple RGB logo goes well with the muted colors of the H270F and Strix 480.

My CPU is only a 65 watt so this was unnecessary. Who cares, when your pulling an ugly Intel cooler for a sweet EVGA CLC.

Prime 95 at 75 minutes put the hottest core to 71c. That's a drop from 84c with the stock cooler. Benchmarks run at 51c vs 71 before. For 60 bucks, it's a nice RGB cooler that isn't too expensive.

Motherboard

Supreme FX audio with the new 1220a chipset was central to my choice for this board. Mostly I wanted a high(ish) non K board. This or the B250. I believe B250 has 12 PCIE lanes and this has 20 lanes. Both have very similar specs with cost difference of about 25 to 40 dollars between them. The H270 boards are fairly new but feel well established. Bios( I know not bios) updates were without drama with a pretty clean install and boot order setup.

Memory

I always wanted this RAM but I already had bought a EVGA SC kit when I found out about it. It also is so expensive, it was a hard choice that I still wished I had made.

When an open box kit of 3200 CAS16 has a 143.96 sticker on them, you pick it up and pay the money.

I'm glad I did since it freed up my EVGA kit to stay with the i5 I had pulled.
4 of 5 because the Arus software is really wonky. The energetic lighting patterns will get glitchy within 2 hours, and begin to hang.

Storage

This little black box transforms the average PC into a blazing fast ....fast thing. Seriously quick boot times. So far windows, World of Warships and Total War Warhammer are the only large programs allowed on this drive as I would like to keep it as empty as possible to extend its' lifespan. Lessor stuff(most steam games) and music etc...go to the physical hard drive.

Storage

This 960 has dropped to 200 dollars so I decided to double my SSD storage. I had the 850 500GB and used the data migration software to clone my installation from the old boot 850 EVO. It all worked, which was nice since I did not feel like doing a clean install.

Video Card

I like this GPU and I shouldn't. It is not fast. The specs have it at 1180mhz I think on the site but this guy runs at 1310Mhz. I have tried overclocking it and the video became very stutter prone. Overclocking also killed my Cinebench score dropping from 126 fps to 106. The dialog box to close Cinebench was also transparent and unusable.
Running at out of the box speeds of 1310 is the option with this GPU.
Why do I like it? It was cheap at 190.00 open box. It also completes the build aesthetic keeping with a Strix core of MOBO and GPU combining Aura lighting effect in tandem.

Now that I've had this card for over 6 months I've increased the stars to 5. It is underpowered in the grand scheme, but for 1080p gaming it gets the job done. More importantly, it gives the 200-300 dollar segment another choice to build with.

Case

This is not a subtle computer case. It screams look at me! Everyone by knows about this case and all the blessed glass. I have become manic about cleanliness since building in this case.
Seriously though, think about getting a small air compressor to keep the unit dusted. With this much glass you will fall victim to obsessive glass cleaning and will need counseling as a direct result. You will obsess as the Aura controlled pulse mingles with the constant glow of the SP120's. Beware the siren call! All that glitters is not gold.

Case Fan

I really like these DC fans. Central hub illumination has a good spread and the effect is of quality. They sound good at speed and lower settings. Basic RGB fans absolutely, but RGB enough for most uses.

Monitor

If you have a 1060 or 580, this will allow big screen use at 60Hz 1080p ultra detail gaming. Not a gamer though. It's just big and beautiful. There is a display port and an HDMI 2.0 pass-through giving you an extra port.

Mouse

Great mouse. I still haven't figured out how to use the hotkeys yet (me so lazy). Paired with a Logitech pad and the mouse action is perfect. Seriously, I did not know mouse pads had improved in the last decade! So much nicer than before.

Comments
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My old Cyrix 66 and x86 MOBO. I would never go back. Those machines were a pain to assemble. I needed special software to massage the sys memory for some games to play. We are living in the best of times. The worst of times oh...never mind.

I have the top two plugged into the "chassis fan 1" with a PWM splitter (5 bucks) and the front 3 into "chassis fan 2" with a 3 way splitter. The back fan is in "CPU fan 2" so it will increase exhaust as the chip gets hotter and never turns off. The 5 intakes are more controllable with FAN EXPERT along with configuring them to have their speeds changed through the UEFI.

I will sometimes run them full-out to push any creeping dust away, then put it to one of the 3 slower speeds.

I pulled the 1TB last month and put it in an external shell to archive data. It has a very fast write speed, but reads are very slow. It would always pull down my USERBENCHMARK scores so the switch to the 7200 2TB drive that scores well, but does not write as fast.

Thank you. That is good advice in the placement of the HDD in the hot window or rather not doing that. I think cheap solid state drives will populate those bays when deals present themselves. The 3 bay drive cage should fit with some encouragement. Three HDDs is more so your idea is more better. 12TB here I come!

That's a double bonus win/win scenario. Thanks for advice on an improvement that is budget friendly. The panel gap idea is also intriguing. I am toying with using the air to push air out of the gaps for now to keep the look clean. It runs pretty dust free but still I use a tiny compressor with a half gallon tank to blow out the inside once a week. I ran through 6 cans of canned air really fast so the mini HDX compressor for 40.00 came in handy.

Also kudos for decoding "old fart". My family name in Spain is FARTO but EA would not let me use it as it profane. So stalewind was born.